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Justice. Only Justice Shall Thou Pursue

Monday, August 30, 2010

Test Run:Two Yemeni Men In Custody On Terror Charges In Amsterdam

This seems to have all the hallmarks of a test-run by al Qaeda terrorists to probe the airline security checkpoints.

Two Yemeni men who arrived in Amsterdam on a flight from Chicago were arrested Monday by Dutch authorities and charged with preparing a terrorist attack after officials found suspicious items in their luggage, Dutch and U.S. officials said.

U.S. authorities requested the arrest after discovering that one of the men had checked his luggage from Chicago to Dulles International Airport in Virginia, but then left Chicago on a different flight to Amsterdam, said a U.S. official, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the case.

The luggage sent to Virginia contained a cell phone taped to a bottle of Pepto-Bismol, in addition to three cell phones taped together and several watches taped together. The owner of the luggage, Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi, a Yemeni citizen who lives in Detroit, also was carrying $7,000 in cash, said a Dutch official, who also spoke on condition anonymity.

After sending his luggage to Dulles, Al Soofi was joined in Chicago by a second man, Hezam al Murisi, and the two men flew on United Airlines flight 908 to Amsterdam. U.S. air marshals also were on the flight.

Al Soofi's luggage was flown to Virginia and was headed for Dubai and then Yemen. But once authorities learned al Soofi had flown on a different flight, federal officials in Virginia ordered the flight returned to the gate to remove al Soofi's luggage. Another inspection revealed no explosives.

ABC News is reporting that the duo were carrying mock bombs in their luggage, but were still allowed to continue on their way.